It was Never the Snow Queen
by Fyliwion
Summary: A boy whose heart was frozen by a shard. The girl who chased him anyway. What are fairy tales really telling anyway?


**Author's Note: **Five years (Really?) to the date I posted my first conan fic. Not all that original, not all that great, and a different pairing altogether. Since then I try to post a new years/christmas fic... most... definitely not the best but tradition. Cheesy, sappy, romantic little reconnection fics.

For the record peeps? There's only so many plots a person can do, and I'm just not sharp enough to try what I wanted to this year (Not to mention shuu isn't really cut out for christmas)

But none the less. You get one. Going out to **Eia **for wanting to rp the snow queen and us realizing it makes a better fic... maybe someday I'll actually fic it... for now it's just this little ficlet.

Happy New Years! And thanks for sticking with me for five years now ^_^

**Disclaimer:** No Kaito in my stocking. 'nuff said.

* * *

_Once upon a time,_

_There were a little boy and a little girl who were best friends. Since they were little they played together, and little could separate the two._

_Then... the little boy's heart was pierced by a shard and he grew cold to the girl and all those around him. A thick wall that separated them, and the little girl (almost a young woman) could do nothing as he withered away more and more into a cold hard shell._

_Until one winter day he dissappeared, and stories said he was swept up by the evil snow queen and taken to her palace of ice._

_So the young woman, even after her best friend had turned to cold ice, put together a pack and chased after him to the fridged north, undergoing trial after trial to find and save the young man she had grown to love._

For Aoko it wasn't quite that simple.

There was no snow queen she could conquer, no great quest to undertake, and no magical shard that pierced his heart.

Well not physically, metaphorically she supposed was a different question altogether.

Except it was rereading the story in a book store, looking it over because the illustrations had been just so beautiful... that she'd had the idea.

And now? Now she was in a foreign country, in a cheap motel, and wondering what ingenious idea had led her on that wild goose chase.

New years...

She should be home with her father. Be home waiting to go to the temple. Be home in her bed with friends and family, not in an over crowded, foreign city with far, far too many people for her to ever find one man.

One cold man whom she thought she knew, but probably didn't even care. After all? There was no white queen to redeem him, but another lonely soul in a large city who'd locked up his heart.

She was out anyway.

She walked through the empty park, dangerous? Probably... but she could see couples strolling nearby on their way to or from parties. Fireworks in the horizon, cheers all around, and there she was in a moderate dress and heavy coat just walking aimlessly.

Stupid.

She sat near the frozen "lake." The bench was covered in snow, but at that point she just brushed it off and sat anyway. The snow that had been a light flurry could truly be called snowfall at that point. The heavy flakes danced under the dim lights, and for all the world they could have been sugar-plum fairies the way they fell so gently.

On the other side of the world it was already the near year, a few more minutes and it would be there too. Another couple days and she'd be on the plane out of there and the stupid, stupid idea of an "adventure" would be over.

"You are aware that Central Park is exceedingly dangerous for a lone woman at night yes? Especially on a night like tonight?" she nearly fell over as she moved to stare at the man that had appeared next to her on the bench. It took several minutes, beyond his heavy coat and scarf, to take in the spiky hair, the slim build, and ice-blue eyes in the lamp light.

"You..." she managed breathy. Of all the thing's she'd meant to say but...

"Hakuba told me you were coming," the young man continued to stare ahead. "Or rather he asked if I'd seen you yet. What are you doing here Aoko?" His blue eyes moved slowly to land on her. Cold, hard eyes that looked nothing like the soft one's that use to plague her before she went to sleep.

"Kaito-"

If life were a fairytale she could kiss him now and the shard would melt.

If the snow queen were there they would solve a puzzle and life would make sense for the both of them. She would be stronger and he'd be an adult and they'd understand one another.

If it were as simple as a story book she could reach for his hand and smile and he'd pull her in his arms.

Instead she did what she could. She kept the gaze and licking her lips managed, "You're KID."

He was like a statue. A perfect, beautiful statue that was bathed in the lamplight and given a halo of snow. A masterpiece with his too blue eyes, and a face that could well have been placed in stone. He opened his mouth to protest and she shook her head.

"No. Listen. I don't like it, but I'm... I'm not blind Kaito. So don't..." His face never twitched and she kept going, "And I don't understand, and yes I dragged out some of the facts, but..." she looked up at him. "I've hated that you weren't even home for the holidays. No one stealing cookies. No one pestering my cooking. No one to chase around with a mop... As if going nearly a year wasn't bad enough you write that you aren't even coming back for new years."

The wall cracked, and it was almost as if there was a shard of glass melting. A wall of ice that she just needed to take a bit of sun to. Wide eyes as she went on, "Although you could've called Kaito instead of stalking me."

He had enough modesty to wince before replying, "I... er... wasn't exactly sure what you were doing here."

She scowled, "You thought I was going to arrest you."

"Maybe."

"Stupid."

"Um... yeah? What's new?"

They were looking at each other with smiles, and there... not quite gone was the hard look, that icy barrier... but enough. Enough that the smile wasn't just another facade, and she felt her own spirits lift just slightly.

It was a simultaneous jump when the bells broke the silence. One... two... heavy rings that shook the air... the twelfth as the entire city burst out in a chorus of noise and sounds. They turned back and it was Kaito that darted forward, brushing his lips gently across her cheek as she touched in in shock.

His smile was all warmth as he said with that mischievous grin, "It's a tradition here in the states after all. Luck."

"Luck huh?"

"Mmmhmm..."

It wasn't a fairytale, and somewhere she knew he was still Kaito and tomorrow would come and they'd still live on separate sides of the world leading two lives.

But the heroine always needed as much luck as possible, and perhaps that was all she really needed.

She leaned up, and just before her lips brushed his said in a smiling voice of her own, "I think we can both take all the luck we can get."

There may be no snow queen, but maybe in the end she wasn't needed at all.

After all, it was really about a boy and a girl and the shard of glass that had frozen his soul.


End file.
